Grocery bills may finally have stopped their seemingly inexorable rise and levelled out, according to figures released this week.

The annual rate of increase in the cost of a shopping basket of staple items this month was 21 per cent, the same as last month, figures compiled by www.mySupermarket.co.uk show.

MySupermarket director Johnny Stern said: "Although shoppers are yet to see an overall reduction in the cost of their food shop, there are lots of bargains out there to be had, particularly on festive treats.

"The price of staple food items has risen at the same year-on-year rate of 21 per cent in November and December. Whilst this is obviously still a large increase on the price shoppers were paying 12 months ago, it may signal that the rate of increase has reached a plateau," he said.

The website's food inflation index shows a 4.5 per cent rise, contradicting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation figure of 4.1 per cent announced today in overall prices of food and drink across Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco. Stern said shoppers should be relieved that prices are staying broadly in line with inflation.

The steepest rises were seen between March and July this year, but prices have steadied since then.

The Office for National Statistics said the government's preferred measure of inflation, the CPI, was up 4.1 per cent in the year to November, down from October's equivalent rate of 4.5 per cent and September's peak of 5.2 per cent.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Vince Cable, said: "There is an air of unreality about these numbers, since most analysts and businesses are seeing evidence of falling prices. This is likely to be the way the world will be for the next couple of years.

"But these figures do suggest that at a time when we're heading into a painful recession, many people are still seeing their living standards falling because of the cost of living," he said.

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